There’s a bit of a comforting feel to Compass
Points today, with books about loosing that stress, getting that sleep, and
eating that steak! First up then is Destressifying by Davidji. Subtitled: The Real-World Guide to Personal Empowerment, Lasting
Fulfilment and Peace of Mind this book shows you how you can handle
any type of stress using holistic techniques. Davidji is a stress-management guru and
internationally recognized meditation expert and the AI for this title tells me
that his teachings on stress release, conflict resolution and mindfulness are
practised in some of the largest police academies in the USA – golly!
There has
just been a big 6-page interview with Davidji in YOGA magazine which has a 90,000
circulation and is accompanied by loads of inspirational colour pictures from
the book – great promotion! Destressifying
by Davidji (pb, 978
1781805350, 10.99) has just been published by Hay House and you can find out more and order it here
Here’s one of the Bookseller’s top highlights
for humour this season: Don't Mention It: The A-Z of
Modern Bullshit by Malcolm
Burgess. This is set to do for modern bullshit what Malcolm Burgess's previous paperback I Hate the Office did for office life. From
Business Consultant (someone who is paid for a small fortune and gets to wear a
Prada suit for saying what you and your colleagues have been saying for years in
the office kitchen) to Glamping (sleeping in a wet tent on a Cath Kidston lilo)
this contains over 1,000 rapier-sharp killer entries. And just for readers of
Compass Points, here’s Malcolm’s guide to those various
bullshit publishing phrases that we all know and love so well! (The views here
are those of Mr Burgess and not necessarily endorsed by Compass Points – just
saying!!)
Enchanted Mandala Mindfulness: Exorbitantly priced colouring books
Healthy eating: written by
someone from West London with half a million
Instagram followers
Erotica: Soft porn
Nordic Noir: Serial killers with
frostbite
Fan Fiction: Written by
the kind of people who, in times past, would have been burnt alive at the
stake
Misery Memoirs: Bottom of barrel scraped too many times
Contemporary Women's Fiction: Chick-lit
Richard and Judy novel: Books that make you laugh and cry, although
possibly not for the reasons the writer intended
Self-Help: Books that show you how to do things for yourself
because, let's face it no one else will
Sequel:
Author dissuaded from writing anything original
Adored by generations of children: GCSE set text
Satirical: A writer sniffy about being called
funny
Set in Britain
Christmas Bestseller: A book you wouldn't dream of reading yourself, but
is felt to be suitable for relatives and people you don't like very
much
Don't Mention It: The A-Z of Modern
Bullshit by Malcolm Burgess (pb, £7.99, 978 0992636456) is
published by Oxygen Books on 22 October 2015. Find out more and order it here
Marriages between writers often seem to be difficult
ones (think Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath), and that between Edna O’Brien and
Ernest Gébler was no exception. The Projectionist:
The Story of Ernest Gébler by Carlo
Gébler is a mesmerizing tale about one of Ireland
Are we excited to see the new Harry Potter
illustrations by Jim Kay from new edition of Philosopher’s Stone
published next week? Get a sneak preview in the Telegraph here. Beautiful!
Comfort, Settle and
Sleep by Samantha Quinn was published last year, and its
author is an avid blogger, with a big fan base and many followers. Channel
Mum has just taken her on as one of their expert partner vloggers. If you’re
not familiar with Channel Mum it’s a website for mums, (doh!) which is run by the founder of
NetMums and part owned by ITV. You can find out about it here on their
website www.channelmum.com/news/ Its USP is that it sponsors
Youtube vloggers – and directly links to their blogs and sites from the
Channel Mum site – basically pooling all the many mummy blogs together in
one place. Comfort, Settle and Sleep has
already got many rave five star reviews on Amazon: “This is an absolute must
have book for all mums, first time mums can feel safe and second time round mums
have said they have been inspired by new tips and techniques. The book is clear
& an enjoyable read. This woman seems to know what she's talking about and I
cannot recommend it enough!” is typical. The author Samantha Quinn is an admirable self publicist, and
there have been many positive reviews of this title in the parenting magazines.
Mummy blogging is of course the most colossally crowded market – but Samantha is
possibly unusual in that she already has a book published – rather than hoping
to get a deal from her vlogging activities. Comfort,
Settle and Sleep by Samantha
Quinn is published by Connections (pb, 978 1859063866) and I’d
urge you to stock it all ready to sell loads of copies as Samantha Quinn becomes the next
Zoella!
As a mega fan of both author Patrick Ness and
Dr Who, I am exceedingly excited to discover that they are soon to be
combined! Yes, it’s true – Patrick Ness is working with Steven
Moffat to create an eight part Doctor Who spin-off series for the
BBC! Read more about it in The Guardian here!
Rob Newman was talking on Radio 6 Music at lunchtime
today about his new book The Entirely Accurate
Encyclopaedia of Evolution which is also a new BBC Radio 4
series starting next week on 5th October. The
Entirely Accurate Encyclopaedia of Evolution, (hb, 978 1908885531,
£11.99) is published by Freight and Cargo and you can find out more and order it here
How far would you go to get the perfect steak? Well
Mark Schatzker’s quest has taken him on
an odyssey to four continents, travelling thousands of miles across eight
countries and working his way through more than 100 lbs of steak prepared
according to dozens of techniques. The result is an impassioned, funny and
remarkably enlightening study of steak and its discontents as well as its many
delights. Steak begins with begins with a
Proustian moment, a lovingly remembered morsel from his past, and Schatzer then goes on to explore beef myths and
esoterica. Does marbling matter more than breed? Is a stressed animal less
tasty? How does one read cow pies? Can umami be described accurately?
Schatzker’s inquisitive mind and comedic sense of timing keep his prose as
lively as it is informative. As he aims for a unifying theory of steak, he even
begins to raise his own cows for slaughter, leading him to a Zen-like
revelation: the secret to great steak is, simply, great steak. This book has
already been published in the US where it was very well received: “Schatzker has done an ace job of combining
interesting historical facts and stories, and amusing accounts of his
steak-seeking travels into an entertaining, story-shaped narrative arc” and
Steak: One Man’s Search for the World’s Tastiest
Piece of Beef by Mark
Schatzker (pb, 978 1859649022, £12.99) is published by
Periscope this month. You can find
out more and order it here.
Someone who loves a bit of steak is of course Mr
Bond, and all things 007 continue to make the news with the arrival of the Sam
Smith theme tune this week (what do you think? A bit of a mournful moan imo). I
mentioned Ian Fleming: A Personal Memoir by Robert
Harling (hb, £20.00 978 1849549356) coming from Robson Press a couple
of weeks ago; and don’t forget about The Bluffer’s
Guide to Bond (pb, 978 1909365049, £6.99) when you are assembling
your 007 display. This is a compendium of all the known facts about Bond; the
man, likes, dislikes, tastes in food and drink, the films, which book or short
story they came from, as well as the post Fleming authors. Plus, of course, an
enormous amount of brilliant Bond trivia! As one critic says: “After reading
through this you are going to know a lot more about Bond than anyone you are
likely to be discussing him with and, as importantly, this is really quite a
fun read.” This essential Bluffer’s title has just been reviewed in
Finish (!) by 007 Travelers which
is a hilarious blog written by Pirita
and Mika, who travel around the world searching for 007 filming locations and
places from Bond books, 007 hotels and 007 restaurants – and indeed anything
Bond related. Now THAT’S the job I want! Find them on Twitter @007travelers and
at www.007travelers.blogspot.co.uk
We enjoyed this entertaining blog in the
Bookseller recently from the manager of Waterstone’s in Canterbury
Worried that there isn’t a Top Gear annual
this year? Well worry no more; Rock Stars
Cars by Dave Roberts is here
to fill the gap! The title says it all: this is witty, irreverent but
informative text accompanying colourful, larger-than-life photographs of 127
rock stars and their cars! The online social media campaign for this title is
already attracting car enthusiasts, music fans and petrol-heads alike and this
is a great at-the-counter title or gift-table book in the lead-up to Christmas!
It’s fantastically browsable, with immediate visual impact! Want to see Chuck
Berry in his Thunderbird? Debbie Harry in her Chevrolet?
Morrissey in his Fiat 500? Well who wouldn’t! You can see some spreads
from the book here. Rock Stars
Cars (978 1905959778, hb, 12.99) is published by Red Planet in October and you can order it here.
Let’s finish up with something from a rock star not
averse to posing with his limousine (Julio, get the stretch); who doesn’t
love a bit of Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson?! This
video truly is the top banana: 100 dance scenes from 100 movies all
mashed up to Uptown Funk – how many can you name!
Compass is on
Twitter! Follow us @CompassIPS. Here are some of our favourite tweets from this
week...
Freight Books @FreightBooks
As a small indie publisher it's often all hands on deck when pallets of new books arrive. I like to think of it as a welcome party.
Cargo Publishing@cargopublishing
Sebastian Faulks says Nicholas Hogg's Tokyo is a "fine novel."
Dymvue @Dymvue
RETWEET of 2014 @BeeRowlatt Hilary Mantel: is there anything you think you can't do? Fay Weldon: No.
Blackwell's Holborn@BlackwellsHH
Thanks to @DanRhodes101 for a great event last night & thanks to all that came. And thanks to @AardvarkBureau We have ltd signed Prof stock!
Guardian Books @GuardianBooks
"Boarding passes are too ostentatious, bus tickets too flimsy. Train tickets are just right" – reader Rob Scorah
Hay House @HayHouseUK
"This day is the future I created yesterday." - @LouiseHay #DailyAffirmation
Carcanet Press @Carcanet
Wonderful night @ForwardPrizes! Congratulations to all the winners and Karen for a brilliant reading.
Freight Books @FreightBooks
Manchester, you're in for a treat. Tonight @mrrobnewman appears at @BadLanguageMcr: https://www.facebook.com/events/473051579543787/ …
That’s all for now
folks! More next week!
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